General disorder: Another four-star tries to cash in
With help from Daniel Lippman, Lee Hudson, Bryan Bender, Andrew Desiderio and Lawrence Ukenye
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Old generals don’t fade away, they move in the bright light of day from the Pentagon into lucrative contracts with defense companies, think tanks and foreign governments.
The revolving door between military/defense industry/wonkism/lobbyist is usually not much of a problem for the D.C. crowd as long as the paperwork is filed before the stars are traded for cufflinks. But some former officers get caught in the door, and things can get messy.
Last night, we found out that JOHN ALLEN, the retired Marine Corps four-star and president of the Brookings Institution think tank, failed to disclose his work for the Qatari government and allegedly lied to federal investigators about it when asked.
According to a 77-page search warrant application originally obtained by the AP, Allen gave agents a “false version of events” in 2020 when asked about his involvement in the 2017 diplomatic crisis that pitted Qatar against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who slapped economic embargoes on their regional rival and for a time even threatened to invade.
Allen, along with RICHARD OLSON, former U.S. ambassador to the UAE and Pakistan, and IMAAD ZUBERI, a business executive hatched a plan to work for the Qatari government to lobby the Trump administration to back Qatar, or at least end the embargoes.
Olson pleaded guilty last week to federal charges in connection with that secret lobbying campaign, and Zuberi was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year for falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent.
This work all happened a year before Allen was named president of the Brookings Institution in 2017, an organization to which Qatar donated $14.8 million in 2013, a big check that again shines a bright light on where some think tanks receive their funding.
The issue of retired generals taking money from foreign governments is hardly limited to Allen, however. Former Defense Secretary and Centcom commander JAMES MATTIS worked as a military adviser for the United Arab Emirates in 2015 prior to becoming former President DONALD TRUMP’s first of four SecDefs. Mattis, who retired as a four-star Marine general in 2013, sought Pentagon approval for the work before taking the job, for which he wasn’t paid, but received reimbursements for travel.
While Mattis worked for plane fare, advising foreign governments is usually a lucrative business for retired military officers, either before or during their almost inevitable defense industry or think tank sinecures.
Enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which mandates that Americans who take part in political activities on behalf of foreign governments register with the Department of Justice, “has never been a top priority at the Justice Department and that is a big reason why we see situations like that of General Allen and Qatar,” said DYLAN HEDTLER-GAUDETTE of the Project On Government Oversight. “This is why it is so critical for both Congress and the Justice Department to take meaningful action to strengthen and enhance enforcement of FARA. If they don’t, undue foreign influence over U.S. policy making will persist and people violating FARA will continue to get away with it.”
Mattis’ battle buddy JOHN KELLY, a fellow retired four-star Marine general who went on to become Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary and White House chief of staff, was granted permission in 2016 to act as a mentor for Australia’s Defense Joint Task Force Commanders Course. Kelly included the job on his government ethics form when he was nominated for the Homeland Security job.
Likewise, retired Marine Gen. JAMES JONES, former President BARACK OBAMA’s first national security adviser, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, and European Command chief, was given authorization to work for Ironhand Security, a company that has sought work with governments like Saudi Arabia. Another four-star retired Marine Corps Commandant, JAMES AMOS, also sought and received permission to join the board of VT Systems Inc, an engineering firm owned by Singapore Technologies Engineering which has offices in the UAE and Brazil.
No list is complete, of course, without mentioning retired three-star Army Gen. MIKE FLYNN, who before he led the charge for Q-inspired conspiracy theories, was Trump’s national security adviser and a decorated, if controversial, three-star general. While working on the Trump campaign, Flynn was being paid by the Turkish government. Flynn didn’t register his foreign work that took place throughout the 2016 presidential campaign with the U.S. government until after Trump fired him in February 2017.
CEASEFIRE: The Pentagon has blinked. After a House panel moved to cut the travel budget of Deputy Defense Secretary KATHLEEN HICKS, the department on Wednesday pledged to put a single entity in charge of cruise missile defense by the end of July, our colleague BRYAN BENDER reports.
Congress has been demanding that an acquisition authority be designated to develop homeland defenses against the low-flying and increasingly advanced weapons since the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. But it was not until the House Armed Services’ Strategic Forces Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. JIM COOPER (D-Tenn.), took the rare punitive step that the Pentagon promised a hard timeline.
“Cruise missile defense is critically important to our national security. The Department is committed to designating the lead acquisition authority for cruise missile defense of the homeland by July 31, 2022,” spokesperson ERIC PAHON told Bryan just as Cooper’s panel was adopting the provision on Hick’s travel as part of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
Cooper responded that the Pentagon’s new commitment “sounds like progress to me.” But he stopped short of saying it would be enough for him to drop the committee’s hardball tactic.
He said he wants to make sure the Pentagon sticks to the new timeline for choosing a cruise missile defense lead and his panel needs to “make sure the deadline doesn’t slip.”
RUSSIA OUT IN THE COLD: After laying low since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Arctic Council is ready to get back to work – without representation from Russia. The eight countries that make up the group (well, now seven) issued a statement today saying they “remain convinced of the enduring value of the Arctic Council for circumpolar cooperation and reiterate our support for this forum and its important work.”
Member states Canada, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United States will continue to gather and collaborate on projects “that do not involve the participation of the Russian Federation.”
PURPLE HEARTS: It’s taken around two years, but nearly 80 service members have been awarded Purple Hearts for injuries sustained during a strike on the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq in early 2020 that led to at least 100 soldiers suffering from brain injuries, according to reporting by STEVE BEYNON","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/06/08/two-years-later-guardsmen-finally-receive-purple-hearts-brain-injuries-suffered-iran-missile-strike.html","_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f325c0000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f325c0001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Military.com’s STEVE BEYNON.
Instead of recognizing the severity of the injuries from the start, which came from a retaliatory attack following the drone strike that assassinated Iran’s Major General QASSEM SOLEIMANI, it was minimized.
“Traumatic brain injuries have been referred to as ‘the signature injury’ of the post-9/11 wars, but it wasn’t until 2011 that the Army codified Purple Heart awards for a concussive injury. Such awards have been relatively rare, given that these injuries are sometimes hard to diagnose or symptoms are sometimes not properly recorded,” Beynon wrote.
Purple hearts, one of the oldest medals in the military, help service members build a solid case in seeking benefits and compensation from Veteran Affairs.
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KNOWN UNKNOWNS: You won’t find many people in D.C. or among the capitals of Europe unwilling to offer some mea culpas over overestimating the Russian military’s prowess in the years leading up to its invasion on Ukraine. But some U.S. officials are starting to grumble that they don’t have a great read on the Ukrainian military, either.
Officials in Kyiv are apparently keeping some details of how they are fighting, and how their troops are performing, from the U.S., The New York Times’ JULIAN BARNES reports.
“U.S. officials said the Ukrainian government gave them few classified briefings or details about their operational plans, and Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they did not tell the Americans everything.” Of course, every country plays this game in one form or another, and the Ukrainian government is fighting for its very existence making it likely to only want to relay good news to their allies. But with $40 billion aid packages flowing out of Washington coffers and negotiations over shipping armed drones to Ukraine taking place, the lack of clarity could eventually be a cause for concern.
SNITCHES GET … RICHES?: China will be extending a monetary reward system for its citizens who send in tips that alert the government of foreign espionage or national security risks, according to a release by the Minister of State Security.
Depending on the information, the pro-snitching initiative could make informants 100,000 yuan or $15,000 USD richer or could instead be redeemed through “spiritual rewards.”
“[China’s] national security is facing a severe and complex situation,” the Ministry said in a Q and A transcript. “In particular, overseas espionage and intelligence agencies and various hostile forces have significantly intensified their infiltration and stealing activities against China, with more diverse means and wider fields, posing a serious threat to our national security.”
This practice isn’t exactly new: Beijing had offered reward money in 2017 for help to expose a spy and Hong Kong’s National Security Law took effect in 2020. Reports could be sent in online, in-person or over a specially set up phone hotline, according to the transcript.
IRAN SHUTS OFF NUCLEAR MONITOR: Iranian state TV told its viewers the government had shut off two U.N. devices that were monitoring uranium enrichment at a nuclear testing site, according to reporting from AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELL","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-international-atomic-energy-agency-iran-middle-east-58f6cd38ebbd1aa2c7cbdcad7dc210bf","_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f325f0004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f325f0005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>The Associated Press’ AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELL.
This comes after the United States, Britain, Germany and France submitted a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna rebuking Iran for not providing the watchdog with details regarding its concern on uranium traces at undeclared sites.
“So far, the IAEA has not only been ungrateful for Iran’s extensive cooperation but has also considered it as a duty,” a state TV broadcast said. “From today, relevant authorities have ordered that surveillance cameras of the Online Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) be shut down.”
It’s not the first time Tehran has shut off IAEA’s access to its nuclear program, but this minor escalation comes as the West and Iran figure out whether they will return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
BLACK SEA BLUES: Romanian leaders are sounding the alarm for a new NATO Black Sea strategy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The global order is going to be influenced by what happens in that crucial region,” said PAVEL POPESCU, a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies in a Wednesday afternoon panel at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
Popescu said he’s met with leaders on Capitol Hill to advocate that the U.S. and NATO prioritize creating a strategic concept for the region, and has urged the alliance to commit to providing economic and military resources as well as seeking dialogue with Turkey, which has said it will deny entry into the transAtlantic alliance for Finland and Sweden so long as they both continue to host Kurdish separatists, braided as terrorists by Ankra.
The Black Sea is increasingly becoming a focal point as Russia blocks the shipment of Ukrainian grain from Odessa, a policy that threatens catastrophic consequences for the global food supply, particularly in food aid for countries staving off mass hunger. Popescu said Romania is doing its part, pumping the country’s defense spending up to 2.5 percent of its annual GDP and banning Chinese tech giant Huawei from operating 5G networks.
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: The Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House has added four new staffers. FAITH LOWE, who was deputy White House liaison at the Department of Homeland Security, is now deputy assistant national cyber director for stakeholder engagement. PHILIP STUPAK, who was counselor to the deputy secretary at DHS, is now director of federal cybersecurity. GEVIN REYNOLDS, who was associate director for operations in the White House Office of Management and Administration, is now special assistant to the National Cyber Director. XAVIER ORTEGA, who was political organizer for People Power for Florida, is now special assistant to the Deputy National Cyber Director for Strategy and Budget. (h/t DANIEL LIPPMAN)
MISSILE DEFENSE DEALS: The war in Ukraine has spurred some renewed international interest for Lockheed Martin’s missile defense systems such as PAC-3 missiles and Patriot systems in a series of negotiations that could net the company over $1 billion, CFO JAY MALAVE said on Wednesday.
Poland and others have expressed the desire to buy these systems, but “it’s a little early to understand exactly what that all means,” Malave said during a UBS Industrials and Transportation conference.
BYTE WARS: While Ukrainian and Russian artillery barrages thunder across eastern and southern Ukraine, there’s another, quieter fight happening in cyberspace – and it might only get worse. The rumblings began on June 1 when U.S. Cyber Command chief Gen. PAUL NAKASONE confirmed that the U.S. has “conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum: offensive, defensive, [and] information operations.”
That admission drew a heated response this week when ANDREI KRUTSKIKH, the Russian foreign ministry’s cyber guru, responded that the Kremlin does not “recommend that the United States provoke Russia into retaliatory measures. A rebuff will certainly follow. It will be firm and resolute. However, the outcome of this ‘mess’ could be catastrophic, because there will be no winners in a direct cyber clash of states.”
The Washington Post’s DAVID IGNATIUSsmartly points out that while Russia has long been paranoid over what it perceives as Washington’s stranglehold over the Internet, there is a larger battle between the U.S. brewing on the cyber front — the leadership of a United Nations telecommunications office.
“The U.S.-Russian contest over cyberspace will play out in this September’s election for a new secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency that could, in theory, take over internet governance,” he writes. The two leading candidates are DOREEN BOGDAN-MARTIN, “an American who currently runs one of the ITU’s bureaus, and RASHID ISMAILOV, a Russian who has worked in his country’s communications ministry and for Huawei, Nokia and other companies.” Don’t sleep on this one.
SPOTTED on Wednesday morning at the Yale CEO Summit at the New York Public Library where Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY spoke by video for an hour and took questions: JEFF SONNENFELD, JANE FRASER, ALBERT BOURLA, LLOYD BLANKFEIN, DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, HAMDI ULUKAYA, FAROOQ KATHWARI, DANNY MEYER, RALPH REED, LALLY WEYMOUTH, JONATHAN GREENBLATT, MARC EIN, BRAD KARP, RICHARD EDELMAN, BOB DIAMOND, MARK PENN, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.N. SERGIY KYSLYTSYA and JOEL MEYERS.
‘PARIAH’ NO MORE?: Biden’s expected trip to Saudi Arabia is causing consternation among his allies on Capitol Hill and is already driving a wedge between the president and his fellow Democrats, our own ANDREW DESIDERIO reports. The visit, expected next month, is intended to push Saudi Arabia to help stabilize global oil markets in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — but it’s also a chance for a Middle East reset for Biden, especially amid stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. While some lawmakers think it would be a mistake to isolate Saudi Arabia at a time when the kingdom could be helpful, others see it as a betrayal by an administration that vowed to prioritize human rights.
“I think it’s atrocious,” Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.) said of a Biden visit, calling Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN a “murderer.” U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that MBS orchestrated the murder of Washington Post journalist and American resident JAMAL KHASHOGGI, and Biden said he would turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah.” Even apart from the human-rights concerns, Senate Finance Committee Chair RON WYDEN (D-Ore.) said he’s seen no evidence that Saudi Arabia is willing to step up when it comes to the West’s energy needs.
It was nearly four years ago that lawmakers from both parties were raging at MBS after a briefing from Trump administration officials about Khashoggi’s murder. One top lawmaker predicted at the time that Saudi Arabia had “lost Congress for probably multiple years.” But today, some argue that Russia’s war in Ukraine has necessitated tough choices from the U.S. Even Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), of “smoking saw” fame, said Saudi Arabia is “still an ally” and said he wouldn’t “beat up on” Biden for going.
POLICE CHIEF ON AR-15s: At the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on gun violence and mass shootings across the U.S., Buffalo Police Commissioner JOSEPH GRAMAGLIA countered GOP messaging by voicing his support for legislation that would target assault rifles.
“It is often said that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun. Aaron [Salter] was the good guy, and was no match for what he went up against, a legal AR-15 with multiple high capacity magazines,” Gramaglia testified. “This radicalized 18-year-old adult should have never been able to access to the weapons he used to perpetrate this attack and the laws need to be enacted to ensure it never happens again.”
Meanwhile, Rep. STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) argued against tighter gun measures, citing how airplanes were not shuttered after 9/11.
“Airplanes were used that day [9/11] as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country,” Scalise said at a press briefing. “There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes.”
In Buffalo, 10 people were killed and three wounded by an 18-year-old white supremacist with an assault rifle on May 14. Just 10 days later, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas with a similarly styled assault weapon. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 249 mass shootings in the U.S. since the start of 2022, and 51 mass shootings across the country since Buffalo, excluding Uvalde.
DOUBLE COVERAGE: Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation Thursday, Washington Commanders defensive coordinator JACK DEL RIO weighed in to say that he believes there is a double standard when it comes to how we compare moments like Black Lives Matter protests and the insurrection at the Capitol.
“I see the images on TV. People’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down, no problem,” Del Rio said to reporters. “And then we have a dust up at the Capitol, nothing burned down and we’re going to make that a major deal.”
— BENJAMIN RIMLAND, the former country director for Japan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, began his new job as senior adviser to the defense secretary for AUKUS policy this week.
— IAIN MARLOW is joining Bloomberg’s Washington D.C. bureau to cover diplomacy and national security. Previously, he was reporting for Bloomberg in Hong Kong.
WHAT TO READ:
— SUSANNAH GEORGE and AZIZ TASSAL, The Washington Post: “Inside the Taliban’s secret war in the Panjshir Valley”
— ALINA POLYAKOVA and DANIEL FRIED, Foreign Affairs: “No Peace at Any Price in Ukraine”
— PAUL CARROLL, Just Security: “Israel’s West Bank Ordinance: The Latest Effort to Suppress Palestinian Civil Society”
— The Defense Strategies Institute, 9 a.m.: “Enhancing Warfighting Capabilities to Deliver Digital and Tactical Battlefield Overmatch — with YOUNG BANG”
— House Armed Services Committee, 9 a.m.:“FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act”
— Farm Credit Administration, 9 a.m.: “Quarterly Report on Economic Conditions and Farm Credit System Condition and Performance”
— The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, 9 a.m.: “Cooperation on Scientific Innovation, Supply Chains, and Geopolitical Risk in Northeast Asia — with DAVID HONEY, SHARON BURKE, BRIAN GABRIEL and more”
— House Homeland Security Committee, 9 a.m.: “Terrorism and Cryptocurrency: Industry Perspectives — with GURVAIS GRIGG, KRISTIN SMITH and JOHN KOTHANEK”
— The Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program, 10:00 a.m.:“Lessons from Europe: Deployment of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sphere — with NATALIYA SHOK, LAURA RUOTSALAINEN, ALEKSI KOPPONEN and more”
— The National Defense Industrial Association’s International Division, 10:00 a.m.: “Defense Industrial Base Cooperation — with PIETER-HENK SCHROOR and EINER GUSTAFSON”
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10:30 a.m.: “European Energy Security: America’s Role in Supporting Europe’s Energy Diversification Agenda — with AMOS HOCHSTEIN”
— RSA Security LLC, 11:30 a.m.: “Annual conference — with ANTHONY ROGERS, DONALD BENACK III, ELVIS CHAN and more”
— The Government Executive Media Group, 12:00 p.m.: “Roadmap to Modernization: Foundations for the Future — with GEORGE JACKSON, MICHELLE HERITAGE, LISA CORRADO and ALISHA POWELL GILLIS”
— The Henry L. Stimson Center, 7:00 p.m.: “Arms Racing in Northeast Asia and Implications for the Korean Peninsula — with JOEL S. WIT, BEE YUN JO and CHAESUNG CHUN”
— House (Select) Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, 8:00 p.m.: “the January 6th Investigation”
Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at award@politico.com","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"mailto:award@politico.com","_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f326a0016","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f326a0017","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>[email protected] or qforgey@politico.com","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"mailto:qforgey@politico.com","_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f326a0018","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-467b-d7bf-abef-c77f326a0019","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>[email protected] to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter.
And thanks to our editor, John Yearwood, who would need more than $15,000 from the government to snitch on his colleagues.
